boston globe
“There was a personnel incident in our newsroom that we responded to,” CEO Susan Goldberg said in a statement.
GBH’s Brighton headquarters is located next to Massachusetts Pike. Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff
About a dozen employees of 89.7 GBH, an affiliate of National Public Radio, were in the conference room with the human resources director.
She had just announced the results of a three-month investigation into complaints about the department’s culture. The atmosphere was tense. Although the bullying allegations against top editors have not been substantiated, the study found that senior executives referred to “old white men” when discussing newsroom diversity and made comments about employees’ race, age, and gender. It was confirmed that he made an inappropriate comment.
Jim Blood was at the November meeting and he was angry. It wasn’t the “old white man” comment that angered Brad, a 74-year-old white man and one of the station’s most prominent on-air personalities. Investigators had shared their findings with him days earlier, but what he heard was even more damning.
“Anne, I don’t know if you intend to deceive people, but you are,” Mr. Brad said to Anne Dexter, the human resources director. In testimony confirmed by two people who were at the scene, the suspect made statements that investigators said employees used to describe the atmosphere in the GBH newsroom: “unpleasant,” “unprofessional.” They repeated specific words such as “fear of fear”, “disrespect”, and “appalling”.
“Is that true, Anne?” someone interjected.
“Yes,” Dexter answered.
Listeners of ‘Morning Edition’ and ‘All Things Thinking’ can’t hear it, but there’s quite a bit of static inside GBH’s Brighton headquarters right now. Several staff members, including Brad, said there was an undercurrent of fear and intimidation fostered by overbearing bosses who sought to increase the station’s relevance online, including on YouTube, Facebook and TikTok, which affected morale. It says that this is weakening radio and television broadcasting, which is the bread and butter of GBH. -And butter. They cite the station’s low ratings, barely ranking in the top 10 in the Boston market. Meanwhile, management says the station is undergoing a major transformation. which can be done difficult.
GBH News general manager Pam Johnston told employees during a series of meetings to discuss the agency’s report: “Significant changes can cause confusion, misunderstanding and impact morale.” . “People should never be made to feel like they are not being heard or that their contributions are not valued…I don’t think some of my comments could make people feel that way.” I have heard that and I apologize for that.”
GBH News editor-in-chief Lee Hill also apologized. “I am sorry if my words or actions have made anyone feel unworthy of this seat,” he told staff. “That’s not my intention.”
A total of 26 employees met privately with investigators, Dexter said at the meeting. But only Brad, co-host of “Boston Public Radio,” the only GBH show to beat rival 90.9 WBUR in ratings, has publicly complained. Those complaining of what they saw as bullying and derogatory behavior declined to speak on the record for fear of retaliation.
“It just confirms what investigators found,” Blood said. “People are afraid for their jobs.”
The cacophony is also occurring at other public radio stations. WBUR fired Tom Ashbrook in 2018 after an investigation confirmed allegations of bullying. And in 2021, WNYC hosts Tangina Vega and Bob Garfield left the nonprofit station after allegations of mistreating colleagues.
However, some GBH employees say the criticism of station management is unfair or exaggerated. Curry Crossley, a veteran journalist, commentator and host who has worked at the NPR affiliate for more than a decade, supports the station’s digital-first approach and praises management’s efforts to increase newsroom diversity. ing. Crosley, who is black, said she has endured toxic workplaces elsewhere, but not here.
“Bigotry, bullying and intimidation are unacceptable. That’s absolutely true,” Crossley said. “But let me be clear: It did. It doesn’t. It happens. Here.”
Smoldering tensions within GBH reached the corner office over the summer, and the agency’s CEO, Susan Goldberg, commissioned an investigation from employment law firm Sunzone & McCarthy. Goldberg acknowledged in an interview that the investigation had uncovered “problems,” but he did not provide specifics, but said the GBH newsroom and its leaders, Johnston and Hill, as well as Investigations and Impact, He said he is confident in the direction of editor Paul Singer.
“There was a personnel situation in the newsroom, and we’ve been dealing with it,” said Goldberg, who was an editor at National Geographic before joining GBH in 2022. As with any workplace, there is some work to be done, but we are moving on. ”
GBH stopped playing jazz and classical music in 2010 on radio (89.7 FM), television (GBH 2) and online (wgbhnews.org). GBH then competed for articles and listeners with WBUR, another NPR affiliate in Boston.
“People think public media stations are more civil, and I want to correct that,” Crossley said. “People may think so based on ‘masterpiece theater,’ but public radio newsrooms are just like any other place.”
Johnston became GM of GBH News at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. She previously worked as a reporter, producer and news director at WLVI, where she was responsible for strategy and audience for the PBS documentary series “Frontline.” TV (channel 56). Mr. Johnston told his staff that he wanted to transform GBH from an old-fashioned public radio/television station with a transmitter atop Great Her Blue Hill (i.e. GBH) to a digital her dynamo. Told.
Initially, employees welcomed the focus on strengthening the station’s online identity. Most agree that the venerable broadcaster should make its home on his YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and streaming platforms in order to remain relevant and attract a younger, more diverse audience. did. Three years later, there are signs that this strategy is working. GBH’s YouTube channel is growing, if not fastest, with 189,000 viewers per week, a 100% increase from 2022. He also co-hosts the popular daytime show Boston Public Radio. “The Big Dig” by Brad Egan and Margery Egan was a streaming success, with 3.6 million downloads in 2023. Additionally, his well-received GBH podcast, “The Big Dig,” garnered him 1.4 million downloads and 637,000 views on YouTube.
But in interviews with the Globe, more than a dozen current and former GBH employees said Mr. Johnston’s management style was autocratic and negative from the beginning. They cite examples of yelling during meetings, belittling employees behind their backs, and a general distrust of employees with opposing views.
Many, including Broad, argue that the intense focus on digital is drawing attention away from the station’s radio and TV programming. More than once, they said, Mr. Johnston declared that “television and radio were over.” GBH’s radio ratings are undiminished, but all but “Boston Public Radio” are lackluster and lag far behind WBUR. According to Nielsen Audio, WBUR had a rating of 6.4 in November, second in the Boston market behind The Sports Hub with a 98.5, and GBH was ninth with a 3.9.
“In terms of overall radio audience numbers for GBH, it’s not looking very good right now,” said Scott Feibush, editor of Northeast Radio Watch and a broadcast consultant.
There is also confusion within GBH about some of Johnston’s programming decisions. In 2022, she and two co-hosts in their 20s are remaking “Morning Edition,” a format that prioritizes her light-hearted banter and that she “doesn’t want to confuse with NPR,” she told the Boston Business Journal. The show is having trouble finding an audience. In November, WBUR’s “Morning Edition” received a rating of 9.3 (2nd place during the same period), and GBH’s “Morning Edition” received a rating of 3.5 (10th place during the same period).
On television, the nightly news program “Greater Boston” has been without a permanent host since Brad left the program more than a year ago, and last spring the weekly arts program, hosted by Johnston, The cultural program “Open Studio” has been canceled. Jared Bowen. Arts organizations and patrons in the Boston area were surprised by the move, and many expressed their displeasure directly to Goldberg. Shortly after, GBH launched his hour-long daily radio show, “The Culture Show,” co-hosted by Mr. Bowen, Mr. Crossley, and others. The show will soon be available on YouTube.
“The lemonade here is that we absolutely had the opportunity to sit down with so many people in our arts and culture community and hear their concerns,” Goldberg said. “I am 100% confident that because of the time we are devoting to the show and the wide range of interests of the contributors to the show, we will be able to cover the arts more than ever before.”
Ms. Johnston declined to be interviewed about the matter, but read prepared remarks addressing employee complaints during a meeting with employees and human resources to discuss the investigator’s report. Johnston said when he took the job, he was given a dual mandate: to grow GBH’s digital presence and diversify the newsroom. She said the station had experienced significant changes in a short period of time with “new leadership, new employees, new strategies, new initiatives” and had experienced it during the pandemic with many GBH employees working remotely. He said he did.
“We know that even under the best of circumstances, change can be difficult and anxiety-provoking,” Johnston said. “And our newsroom has gone through a lot of changes.”
Ms. Johnston also recanted her gloomy assessment of radio and television.
“My words about the future of radio and television were harsh and not what I intended,” she said. “Radio and TV are very important to us even as we try to increase our digital presence.”
GBH has increased the diversity of its newsroom since Johnston arrived. In 2021, she hired Hill, who is Black, as editor-in-chief. He previously worked as an executive producer on “The Takeaway” at WNYC, but left the station a few months after Vega left. When Johnston took over in 2020, 19 of GBH News’ 109 employees were people of color. Currently, 27 out of 125 do so.
Mr. Crosley suggested that some of the dissatisfaction with Mr. Johnston and Mr. Hill may reflect anxieties and concerns about GBH’s efforts to whiten its newsroom. Asked if he thought there would be resistance to increasing diversity, Goldberg simply answered, “No.”
“Like any organization, we have things to improve. We need people who can do their jobs better, myself included, and we’re working on that,” she said.
Broad acknowledges that Goldberg conducted the investigation, but doubts it will change anything.
“People testified about abuse, much of which was confirmed. No one was held accountable,” Blood said. “Now people have to report the same person who testified against them and hope his superiors don’t know about their testimony.”